For the past few weeks, President Donald Trump has drawn attention to a migrant caravan in Central America, which is composed of a few thousand people, traveling toward the United States-Mexico border. This has become one of the many flashpoints he has used in the past few weeks to drive his supporters to the polls Tuesday.
In response to the caravan, Trump said he will send thousands of troops to the Southern border, but those troops cannot interact with people actually crossing the U.S. border. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen told Fox News on Oct. 25 that the troops are being sent to “bolster†the capabilities of the border patrol.
What the troops cannot do is what I think Trump is insinuating they will do, which is arrest those crossing the border illegally, because that is against the law.
The Posse Comitatus Act, signed by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1878, prohibits the U.S. Army and Air Force from enforcing domestic policy within the U.S., so the only thing they will be there to do is assist the Border Patrol with more behind the scenes work, meaning help with transporting Border Patrol officers, maintaining the border partition and providing medical attention where needed. The Border Patrol will ultimately be the ones who handle any part of the immigration process, and any troops will fall to the background by aiding with logistical issues.
It is perfectly legal for anyone to come to a port of entry of the U.S. and seek asylum. After passing an initial screening, an asylum seeker is given a court date when they will go before a judge and make their claim. This part of the process, going before a judge, can take a long time, from months to years.
If the amount of people in the caravan also make it all the way to the border and make an asylum claim, the courts processing these claims will gum up for a while. The troops heading to the border will be in no way part of that process. All those people will still be living in the U.S. waiting for a court date, no matter where Trump sends the troops.
I think the whole caravan debacle is a non-issue. The caravan, which is currently in southern Mexico, will not be anywhere near the border for weeks or months. What is coming up soon is the midterm elections in which Trump has a vested interest.
The amount of high-profile and hotly contested races in this election cycle has caught national attention, especially when it comes to the Democrats, who are making serious runs for traditionally Republican-held seats in Congress and governor’s mansions across the country.
Trump threatened the caravan on Twitter on Oct. 31 when he tweeted that the military would be waiting for them when they get here. I guess they will be, but they really cannot do much to stop them if they are seeking asylum.
And that’s the tea on that.
